How Fast Does That .22 Long Rifle Go? Bull … .

Reports of .22 Long Rifle speeds seem to have been greatly over-estimated at a certain point in time.

A Model 63 High Grade.

“The Model 63 was designed for Winchester/Western Super Speed and Super-X Long Rifle; it’s stamped right there on the barrel. The first high-speed LR ammunition came out in 1930. If you look at those old ammunition handbooks and similar publications listing ballistic data, you’ll find the 40-grain high-speed .22 Long Rifle solid listed at 1,375 fps and the 37-grain hollowpoint at 1,400!

Did they really go that fast? I put this question to an engineer/representative of a major ammunition company. He prefaced his remarks with something about bovine manure …” .—C. Rodney James, “Winchester’s Classic .22 Semi-Auto Rifles of the Twentieth Century, the 63 and 1903,” from the soon to be released Gun Digest 2014! Get your copy now—preorder here and save!

About Jennifer L.S. Pearsall

Jennifer L.S. Pearsall joined Gun Digest in summer 2011 as a books editor. She began her career selling guns in a retail gun shop and handgun range in Northern Virginia in the early 1990s. Recruited by the NRA to join its editorial staff in 1999, she then went on to succeed as a freelance writer and photographer. She's been a competitive shooter in many disciplines, including sporting clays, IPSC, and metallic blackpowder cartridge silhouette, and she has been an avid hunter for many years.